1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a data recording control device for a camera, and more particularly to a device for coordinating the data recorder with the camera in or to which the automatic film winder is incorporated or releasably attached.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recording data on the same film frame as a scene being photographed generally has involved projecting a light beam bearing a pattern of the data onto the film for a specific time while the film is exposed to an image of the scene. The data recorder must be coordinated with the shutter of the camera. When an automatic film feeder for advancing the film strip for a succeeding set of exposures, for example a motor drive or winder, is combined with the data recorder, or when the manual winding lever is cocked very fast, the film advance may start before either or both the shutter and the data recorder end their operations. Thus, the object image and/or the data pattern are sometimes more or less obscured.
The problem of feeding the film before the shutter is closed has been solved by deferring generation of an actuating signal for the motor drive or winder pending termination of the release operation of the camera. Attempts have been made to solve the problem of streaking of the recorded data by providing an actuating signal for initiating the data recorder from a camera system control portion through a channel to the data recorder, and by passing a signal from the data recorder through another channel back to the camera system control portion when the operation of the data recorder ends. The camera system control portion produces an actuating system for the motor drive or winder only after detecting the signal from the data recorder and the shutter's deactuating signal or signal representing the termination of the shutter's exposure operation. The film is then advanced one frame. A system performing this method is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,603. However, using such a system requires providing two additional channels for transmission of signals representing the initiation and termination of the data recording operation between the data recorder and the camera control portion in the form of two pins. The total number of pairs of pins including ground to the battery is three.
The above solutions fail, at least in part, to meet the prerequisite of minimizing the bulk and size of handy cameras to permit a user to manage them easily. Also, spacing of the channels cannot easily be achieved in many cases. Because the separation between adjacent pins were unduly narrow in some prior art cameras, the electrical insulation between channels were liable to be insufficient when wet, such as with dew. When dust or foreign particles lay between pins in a pair, they interferred with proper conduction.
Also, with the aforementioned contact pins positioned on the back cover of the camera, as is common practice in the art, numerous recycles of opening and closing the back cover had the tendency to wear out the contact pins. This contributed to an increase in the possibility of creating a void in the channel and hence, the likelihood of faulty operation.
Further, efforts have been made to reduce the number of contact pins in order to avoid dificulties due to failure of the electrical insulation or faulty operation arising from difficulty in transmitting signals therethrough.